What We Did on Halloween

Since Halloween fell on Sunday we decided not to do regular trick-or-treating and instead had an afternoon full of family fun. First we carved jack-o-lanterns. Above you can see Babs' on the left, which she designed and carved all by herself! Also pictured is MungBean's which he drew the face on by himself and then I carved. So cute! Quay designed her own and she and I split the carving beween us. (You'll see it in a picture further down...)

Then we filled the afternoon with crafts and games. The camera battery was desperately low so I didn't get many pics, so instead of a picture here's 1000 words and you can use your imagination at how cute it all was. We made pringles cans into haunted castles, egg cartons into spiders, and dipped caramel apples. Then we played ghost bowling, pictured below:

The point was to knock over the paper-towel-covered-soda-bottle ghosts with the ball. The ball was supposed to be wrapped up like a mummy, but the ace bandages I had on hand slipped off right away, so that didn't work out. Self-sticking gauze next time. We had a mini-pumpkin hunt with a bunch of acorns that I painted orange and then scattered in the yard. The jack-o-lantern face on each one determined its point value. The kids gathered them over and over. It was the favorite game (Q & MB played it after school yesterday too) so painting all those acorns was worth it after all. Then we had a blind candy taste test. The girls were champs and identified every candy they were given. They had done plenty of studying after the ward trunk or treat on Friday, so they were well prepared for the test. Then the kids went out to decorate the driveway with sidewalk chalk monsters, where they were joined by a handful of neighbors (one of whom told her parents she didn't want to go trick or treating because she was having so much fun!) The kids loved passing out candy to trick or treaters. Then we had sea creatures & monster brains for dinner (shrimp & brussels sprouts) and ghost milk to drink (a ghost face painted on the inside of a glass with melted chocolate, then fill with milk... so cool!). And we ended the evening watching It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and eating the caramel apples.

Here are the costumes for the year:

QuayQuay was a leprechaun. Leprechaun paraphernalia is not easy to come by in October. Luckily, all she wanted was a green shirt (had one already), green skirt (scored this awesome number at the thrift store) and a green shawl (fabulous fabric from Jo-Ann). Sweet!

Babs was Pippi Longstocking. The dress will get its own post in a day or two, because it's so awesome (stay tuned!!!) The hair turned out great too (wire hanger)! Her accessories included Mr. Nilssen her pet monkey (he was supposed to have a hat which I never got around to making), mismatched knee socks, and shoes that were too big.

And MungBean and I did not see eye-to-eye on costumes this year. I wanted him to go as Mario Batali, he wanted to be a pirate. He wore pirate stuff to the ward trunk or treat but refused to dress up with the girls on actual Halloween. Grrr.

Despite no official trick or treating, the house is plenty full of candy and I'd call the whole holiday a success!